12 Years!

Matt and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this year.  We were able to get away for the weekend thanks to my mom and dad taking our kids for us!  Matt’s co-worker has a condo in Fernie and was very generous and let us take it for the weekend.  We set out Friday night after both Matt and I got off work, dropped off our kids at mom and dad’s and got there late.  Saturday was such a nice day.  We really didn’t do anything, but we were able to sleep in, watch a movie, play a game together and go out to a nice dinner.  We drove down into Montana and found a little place we had heard of called Point of Rocks.  It is a converted house and the food was great!  We stayed over Saturday night and were planning on going to church in Kamloops, but overnight it started to snow and the roads were not so nice, so we decided to head home that morning.  We made it back to mom and dad’s in time to go to sacrament meeting with them and the kids.  We had a nice dinner there and then headed back home.  It was nice to spend a whole weekend together – Happy Anniversary!!

Halloween

I openly admit that Halloween is not my most favorite night of the year, but my kids love it.  They had a great day dressing up and loading up on the candy.  We had a trunk or treat in our church parking lot, and then we went to a few houses in our neighborhood.  We have some awesome neighbors that make up special treat bags just for our kids, so they are always excited to go and say hello to them. 

 

Matt’s Birthday Hike

All Matt really wanted for his birthday was to go on a hike up in Waterton.  So he took Brendan and Grace and did just that.  They decided to go to Goat Lake this time and they had a great time!
 
After they got home, we had some presents waiting for Matt.  He got a new water backpack, and some targets to shoot at with his air soft gun.  Happy Birthday Matt!!

Tomatoes!!!

We (Matt) decided to start almost 2 dozen tomato plants this year.  We only lost a couple of the plants, and the rest produced, and produced and produced.  I made 18 quarts of salsa, we ate tomatoes every day, and we gave away as many as I could.  My best estimate for our total yield was about 50lbs of tomatoes!!

Hiking in the Coulees

Matt decided to take the three youngest kids for a walk in the coulees and they actually did a good job with all that walking.  It’s always more fun with Dad!!
   

Gideon’s Birthday and the Stake Fair

For the last couple of years, the stake fair has landed on, or close to Gideon’s birthday.  He thinks it’s great, and I don’t have to plan any extra parties – so it’s a win/win!! 

First Day of School

School is back in session!  I’m not sure if I was excited or not.  In some ways it is nice to get back into a routine and have a schedule to go by.  But, we had so much fun this summer, that it was hard to leave that all behind.  Brendan started grade 11 this year, and he actually didn’t have to be to school until noon, but he was a good sport and came out for a picture.  Grace started grade 6 and has moved on to the Jr. High School.  Anna is in grade 4, and Rebecca is in grade 3, and now Sarah has joined them at the elementary school and is starting Kindergarten.  She didn’t have school this morning as they have a staggered entry, so she was still in her pj’s.  Gideon is in his second year of pre-school and had a different start date as well.  I now have 2 hours every morning with all six kids in school --- oh the possibilities!!